The budget battle between the mayor's office and the fire department took a new turn Thursday, when Mayor Jean Stothert spoke out for the first time since a closed-door meeting with Omaha Fire Chief Mike McDonnell.

In an interview with KETV NewsWatch 7, Stothert was critical of the way McDonnell responded to her request for records and documents to help her find ways to solve the department's budgetary shortage for fiscal year 2014. McDonnell personally delivered a large box full of documents to the mayor's office around 5 p.m. Wednesday -- in the presence of representatives of several media outlets.

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"I didn't want material handed to me in a box," Stothert said of that delivery. "This isn't a joke. This is not a circus. These are serious problems."

The mayor said all departments have been cooperative and made good progress toward meeting her requested budget targets for next year -- with the exception of the fire department.

"They are still about $10 million short," Stothert said. "They are nowhere close to their target."

Stothert told KETV NewsWatch 7 that her Wednesday meeting with McDonnell was "constructive." She asked McDonnell a number of questions, and he asked her several of his own -- but they did not go through the documents "line item by line item," she said. The documents contain information about staffing and other budget-related interests.

Now, the mayor has decided to work on the fire department's budget herself to see what cuts can be made. She said she would review the information delivered to her by McDonnell, and use that information in her efforts to find those cuts. Stothert had made a written request for the information to McDonnell early this week.

"I'm going to have to work on their budget and see what I can do," Stothert said Thursday. "If we are going to get spending under control -- and get our city's budget under control -- I need to know what's going on in the fire department."

Stothert also reiterated her directive from earlier in the week that McDonnell not talk about the fire department budget with the media.

McDonnell did not respond to numerous phone calls and messages left with his staff Thursday.